Creature of the Night
by ItsWhishawTime
Summary: Abigail Thornton becomes one of Jonathan Crane's many victims as he uses his infamous fear toxin to frighten her, but will she be able to stand up to it?


My mind has already began it's deterioration within these cushioned walls. I was admitted to Arkham Asylum little more than a few months ago, locked away and forced to wear a straight-jacket. People said that I killed people and even my own parents, but I didn't. I'm an innocent girl. I was falsely admitted. I've given up all hope for Gotham now. The police are useless. The doctors know nothing about medicine, nothing about therapy. They suck, every last one of 'em… Well, maybe all but one: Dr. Jonathan Crane. He seems decent enough. He's my only friend here at the asylum; The only member of staff that bothers to come and talk to me down in my shallow, cold room. He asks about my life before I was sectioned, my family, my friends. He more recently brought up the subject of fears. On his last visit, he asked me of my phobias. I told him: Fire, and death…

I awoke in the middle of the night after having a frightful dream. The ever-dimming lights flickered annoyingly. The bed had gotten unbearably uncomfortable while wearing a straight-jacket, buckled up and causing my joints to stiffen. It was extremely unpleasant, and I didn't deserve it. I sat up, listening to the regular screams and wails of the patients echoing through the ward as their nightmares also aroused them from their slumbers. It'd become an all too familiar sound, though they seemed to be screaming louder than usual. I was on the verge of going insane myself, though I tried to keep myself as occupied as possible: Staring at walls and counting the footsteps that I heard across the ward every day. How stimulating. Unexpectedly, I heard three heavy, sharp knocks hit the door like lightening strikes. The door swung open. It was Dr. Crane. I smiled as I didn't expect to see him at such an early time in the morning.

"You're earlier than usual today, Sir." I commented.

"I know, dear Abigail, I know." He left the door ajar. "Having trouble sleeping, are you?" He asked as he sat upon the end of my creaky bed.

"I had a nightmare. I've been having the same one for weeks now. It's my parents... Covered in blood, lying on the floor..." He sniffled, the thought of my dead parents meaning nothing to me as I didn't care any more.

Crane's sympathetic frown seemed false. I propped myself up against the wall by the bed, moaning in slight frustration as my movements were limited due to my straight-jacket.

"I can't get comfortable in this thing! It's driving me crazy." I said, the pun clearly not intended.

"Oh, you'll get used to it, I assure you. Understand that it's only for your own protection as well as ours. We don't want yourself now, do we?" He raised his eyebrows.

I shrugged my shoulders and later shook my head to agree with him. He'd brought a silver briefcase, and I'd never seen it with him before. I stared at it for a moment before looking back up at him again.

"…What's in there?" I asked curiously.

"Would you like to see?" His eyes widened with excitement like a kid at show and tell.

It's almost as if he was waiting for me to ask. He placed the case on his far side and opened it. I leaned over. I saw a hideous looking mask contained inside. It bared a striking resemblance to… A scarecrow? I shuffled closer towards Crane and continued to stare. A sudden realization came to me, and I smiled smugly.

"…I should've known. That explains why the patients are screaming louder than usual: It's some sort of sick Halloween joke, right? Well, fortunately, I'm sane enough to know that monsters like that aren't real - You can't scare me, Dr. Crane. The joke's on you, I'm afraid." I laughed pitifully.

Crane threw his piercing eyes at me, a less than amused expression upon his face. He removed his glasses and slid them into his blazer's front pocket before giving it a joyful tap with his hand. He leaned over to me and shear shock flew over me as he began to undo my restraints. I knew something fishy was going on. Members of staff were never aloud to release a patient from their straight-jacket, unless they were about to be discharged from the asylum, and I'm no brainiac, but I don't think they would really discharge me at 4:00 in the morning, do you? I was beginning to think that Crane was going to use me for something... The last buckle was undone - Freedom, heaven - I was able to move my arms and legs properly and freely for the first time in days. This could've been an opportunity to escape, but I decided to stay put.

"Sir... Are you letting me go? Because I don't think that's aloud without permission." I asked curiously as I stretched my arms and legs across my bed.

He responded with nothing but a demonic smile. Crane wasn't himself at all, and I'd thought that ever since his strange obsession with fears and phobias had occurred. The idea had completely consumed him, and now he was aiming his little game at me. Has hand lunged forward and clasped a thick strand of my hair. He dragged me off my bed and across the room and threw me into a dark corner like I was worthless. He pinned me to the wall by my neck.

"Now, I want you to be a good little girl and close your eyes, and I'm going to count to three. As soon as I reach three, I want you to open them. Can you do that for me, Abigail?" He growled through his teeth, the same demonic smile still consuming his face like a rampaging virus. "Don't move."

My eyes filled with tears in pure panic as they snapped shut tightly before Crane chose to threaten me. I couldn't bare to imagine what he was about to do to me. Whatever it was, I knew it was going to be unpleasant. His hand released my neck, but I kept my eyes shut as instructed, beads of tears rolling across my cheeks.

_"One…"_

I heard a metal clank.

_"Two…"_

Crane's hand had returned it's grip to my neck.

_"Three…"_

My eyes slowly fluttered open, my vision slightly blurred from my tears. He was wearing it; He was wearing that horrible mask in front of me.

_"...Surprise!"_ The mask now corrupted his voice, turning it deep, cold and bitter.

A gas imitated from his case, which now stood at his feet, and filled the room entirely. In a matter of seconds, our surroundings had began to fill with flames that stretching right to the ceiling, burning everything in sight - All but me and Crane - Scarecrows, doppelgangers, joined the flames and growled at me like lions, grotesque fluid oozing from their mouths and smoke rising from their bodies. Each of them stood with switch-blade knives in their hands. The sight was terrifying, like something I'd only ever seen in a horror movie or a frightening dream. I shamefully shrieked as the fears that haunted me as a child now came back to haunt me again in this nightmare-ish inferno. Crane had turned himself into a monster, quite literally. He grabbed my wrists and slammed me against the solid wall that stood opposite us. He held a knife painfully close to my neck. I hadn't recalled him picking up a knife, but with these wide hallucinations appearing before my eyes, I didn't think twice about the detail. I was more concerned as to whether it was really there or not. I shrieked again.

_"What's the matter, sweet Abigail? Are you having a nightmare?"_ He teased as he stroked my face, every which way I turned my head, he would be there, staring at me.

_"W-what's going on?!"_ I asked him as my eyes darted around the room.

_"What do you see?"_ He asked back, completely ignoring my question.

_"...There's fire... A-and scarecrows with knives... They look like you, and they look like they want to kill me!"_ I answered, my voice incredibly shaken. _"Please, doctor, just make it stop! M-make it go away!"_ I yelled in panic.

I was ignored again.

_"Fear is in the mind. Always remember that."_ He hissed as he taunted me with the imaginary blade, stroking it across my cheek which now happened to be bruised._ "It's fascinating, isn't it? How the mind can deteriorate within a matter of seconds. I'm able to send individuals into an unbearable oblivion with this toxin. I rule you - I rule all the nut-jobs in this place!"_ He laughed demonically, the blade slid down and was now just inches away from my jugular artery.

I couldn't take it any more. The only doctor in the asylum whom I could call my friend had turned on me, falsely getting to know me for months, all for this twisted torment and torture? I wasn't prepared to stand it any longer. I pushed his arms away and forcefully pushed him to the floor. The scarecrows approached me with their menacing knives pointing at me, readying to slash me. It was then that I realized exactly what I was standing beside. I'd never been so happy to see a door. It was left ajar. I opened it and fled from my room, running through what seemed like an endless corridor, the bulbs buzzing and flickering like their light was about to withdraw. I looked back. Crane limped lazily out into the ward. He'd taken the mask off at some point, but I was still trapped in the nightmare. I could tell. The scarecrows charged at me like an army, and Crane was their leader. I reached the end of the corridor. The next part of the building was locked up, a cage blocking the doorway. I pulled at the bars and screamed, nothing but the fellow patients replying with their own horrified screams. Crane and the hallucinations reached me. He put his hands upon my shoulders and looked down at me with his frightful, steel blue eyes.

"Why are you doing this, Crane?!" I cried at him.

"To show you a new world - The world of fear." He replied as he stretched out my arm roughly.

"You're demented! You won't get away with this! You hear me?! You'll never work here again once I tell them what you're up to!" I tried to gain an answer, a glance or even a sign of defeat from him, but he possessed a graceful habit of ignoring me. He was retrieving something from his trouser pocket - Hard to tell exactly what it was until he pulled it out - A long syringe filled with a blue-green coloured substance. I winced as he injected the fluid into my forearm. "Ow! That hurt!" I shouted.

"Ssh... There, there... This is just a bad dream..." He cooed, showing me a false smile which he clearly hadn't perfected into a convincing one. "In a few minutes, you'll be asleep. The next thing you know, you'll be waking up in your room and everything will be fine... Like nothing ever happened..." His smile eventually turned into an evil smirk as he rubbed the area in which he had injected the drug. It was a heavy dose of a sleep-inducing drug, and it's effects soon kicked in. _"No! ...No... I'll tell..."_ My speech was slurred. I stumbled before sliding to the ground as my legs gave way.

"There's nothing to tell, dear Abigail." He laughed, the demon scarecrows growling and snarling at me from behind his back as he towered over me. "Nobody in this asylum, not even the staff, are sane enough to believe that a poor fifteen year old girl who - I'll add - killed her own parents, saw a bunch of scarecrows torturing her with knives, while she sat helpless in the corner of the corridor, imaginary flames engulfing her whole until she was burned alive..." He kneeled down to me. "...You're doomed, my sweet. No amount of crazy pills will help you now. He's stuck in your mind forever..." I felt my eyes becoming heavier. I was helpless and unable to move._ "...Scarecrow... Scarecrow..."_ He whispered to me before standing up again. "...Hello, nurse... Yes, I'm afraid the patient claims to have seen a scarecrow... _Oh, God, not another one!_" He wailed with demonic laughter as he mimicked the conversation he would soon be having with the nurse. He walked away from the scene, leaving me to defend myself against the scarecrow army. They closed in on me. I closed my eyes...

I awoke with a startle and a sharp gasp. A nurse was sat at my bedside. I was in my straight-jacket again. What'd happened? Was all of that really just a dream? I sat up.

"Good morning, Abigail. Did you have a bad dream again?" She smiled, readying my daily medication.

"It was horrible... I was being attacked by scarecrows, and... They had knives... A-and they wanted to kill me... And I'm sure it was all real. It really happened. I'm positive..."

"Right... Here, take this and I'll be back in a moment..." The nurse said as she put the pill into my mouth, shortly standing up and heading for the door.

I looked up, through the glass panel within the door. I shrieked and jumped back in fear of what I saw on the other side.

"...What on earth is it?" The nurse asked.

"The S-scarecrow! He's right there, he's on the ward! Get him, k-kill him! Quick!" I sobbed, putting my face into my lap in an attempt to hide myself.

"...Oh, God, not another one... _Get Dr. Crane in here!_"


End file.
